Chapter 1 Almanac
On the 23rd day of the fourth lunar month, awns grow.
It was raining outside the house. Ning Zhe walked into the ancestral hall dedicated to the snake god, opened the old almanac nailed on the tongue of the snake god statue, and checked the good or bad luck of today:
[Yi:]< br>
【Taboo: Traveling, burial, funeral, offering sacrifices】
"Avoid traveling... Is the rule today that you can't go out?" Ning Zhe looked at the almanac in front of him and kept the contents in mind.
The content of the almanac is the key to survival in this isolated mountain village.
This village is called Hejiacun. It is located in the center of a basin surrounded by mountains and is isolated from the world. The entire village is divided into east and west halves by a river, connected by three arch bridges.
People in Hejia Village believe in the snake god, and every household has a portrait of the snake god. The image of the snake god is depicted as a large sapphire snake with a pair of curved long horns. A wooden statue of the snake god carved from the root of a camphor tree is enshrined in the clan ancestral hall at the south end of the village, surrounded by the tablets of the ancestors of Hejia Village, that is, Ning. Where Zhe is now.
An old almanac is nailed to the tongue of the snake god statue. The most important thing for the people of Hejia Village every midnight is to come to the ancestral hall to turn over a page of the almanac and check the good or bad day before they can sleep peacefully.
According to villagers, the good and bad fortunes in the almanac are secrets revealed by the snake god.
The taboos and taboos given in the almanac every day are random. If you know their contents, you can seek good luck and avoid disasters. If you do what you should do today, you will have good luck. If you commit the corresponding taboos, you will have bad luck. In terms of luck, repeated violations of taboos will bring bad luck, and those who violate too many taboos too seriously may even die suddenly and mysteriously.
Ning Zhe knows this personally.
When he first entered the village yesterday, because he was not clear about the rules here, he inadvertently violated the taboos of 'seeing life' and 'getting rid of insects' in yesterday's good and bad luck, causing himself to be unlucky all day:
I tripped over a gap in the stone road while walking, got hit on the back of my head by a falling tile from the eaves of a house, and it started pouring rain just as I was about to go out... It was so hard to stay up until midnight, and the isolated and independent small mountain village was about to welcome Come to a new day. Ning Zhe squatted at the door of the ancestral hall and immediately opened the almanac as soon as midnight passed to check whether the day would be good or bad.
Ning Zhe confirmed the contents of the almanac again:
[Suitable:]
[Taboo: traveling, burial, funeral, offering sacrifices]
“Burial, funeral, Sacrifice is easy to understand, but what exactly is "travel"? What do you mean? Does it mean the far door, or does it matter if you leave the house and other buildings and reach the outside world?"
Ning Zhe was confused, and his eyes moved up slightly, falling behind the word 'yi'. on the blank:
"Why do the almanac only contain taboos and no propriety?"
Everything is inappropriate today?
When he was wondering, there were soft footsteps outside the ancestral hall. It should be that some villagers came to check the almanac. Ning Zhe left the lotus platform with the statue of the snake god and walked towards the side door of the ancestral hall, preparing to leave.
The villagers in Hejia Village are not serious people. If possible, Ning Zhe does not want to have more contact with them.
But the candlelight behind him swayed slightly, and Ning Zhe came to the side door of the ancestral hall, hesitant. Unable to determine the specific meaning of the 'travel' taboo, he didn't dare to go out rashly. He was already unlucky enough yesterday.
"It's past midnight, and today's good and bad fortunes have been refreshed. If just leaving the house and moving around in the village is considered a 'travel', then the villagers who leave their homes and come to the ancestral hall to check the almanac have already committed a taboo at this moment." Ning Zhe thought in his heart. thought.
The snake god is tolerant. If an ignorant person violates taboos for the first time, it will only cause some insignificant misfortune and will not harm his life. In other words, as long as you observe whether the villagers who come to the ancestral hall are unlucky, you should be able to roughly judge whether they have violated the taboo of 'traveling'.
Thinking of this, Ning Zhe did not leave in a hurry. He walked sideways to a pillar against the wall. The pillar was pure black in color, with a dark red old silk curtain hanging on it, and a dim candlestick on the curtain. The bottom is shaking slightly. Ning Zhe hid himself behind the curtain and observed the main entrance of the ancestral hall through the gap of candlelight.
Light and muffled footsteps were mixed with the sound of pattering water. A pair of white sneakers stepped through the puddles on the street and arrived at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
"..." Ning Zhe's eyes were fixed on the figure walking in from the door, and his pupils shrank slightly in shock.
It was a strong young man, who looked less than thirty years old. He wore a simple vest with loose pants suitable for running. His thick arms and sneakers on his feet showed that he was a guy who loved exercising. However, It was such an ordinary dress that made Ning Zhe shudder.
“Ever since I was involved in Hejia Village, every villager I saw here looked weird. They wore outdated hemp clothes, plowed the fields with primitive oxen-drawn plows, and they spoke strangely. With a strong Hakka accent… there wasn’t even a single electric light on the road or in the house.”
"If it weren't for the weird rules here and the villagers' stiff movements like shadow puppets, I even doubted whether I had traveled to ancient times." But in such a weird 'ancient village' , but he saw another person wearing modern clothes.
"Who is he? Was he involved in this strange place like me? Are there other living people here besides me?"
All kinds of doubts filled Ning Zhe's mind, but his cautious character prevented him from acting rashly. He slowed down his breathing and tried his best to control himself not to make any noise. Ning Zhe stared unblinking at the man wearing a vest and sneakers. The strong man walked into the ancestral hall, went straight to the inner hall, and stood in front of the statue of the snake god.
"His goal is also the lunar calendar." Ning Zhe knew it in his heart.
This man in a vest is probably like me, an outsider who accidentally got involved in this weird village. He may have even inadvertently violated the taboo of the snake god. His purpose of coming to the ancestral hall late at night may be the same as me. ——Look through the almanac to check the good or bad luck of today.
The man in the vest looked up at the old almanac hanging on the tongue of the snake god, with a puzzled expression on his face. Ning Zhe knew what he was doubting:
“He thought he was the first one to come. For those who come to the ancestral hall, the almanac has not been turned over yet, and it is still stuck on yesterday. Therefore, he may be wondering why the content in the almanac does not match the taboo he violated yesterday.”
But in fact, Ning Zhe, who came a step earlier, had already turned the almanac to today, which of course was not correct.
The man in the vest hesitated for a moment in front of the statue of the snake god, and finally extended his hand to the almanac. He was ready to look through the almanac.
"Yes, there is no AD date in this almanac. It uses the lunar calendar. It is difficult for modern people who are used to the metric calendar to judge whether the date shown on it is today based on the lunar calendar date." Ning Zhe roughly guessed it. What's happening now.
This situation can actually be solved by just opening the phone and taking a look. Mobile phone manufacturers usually display the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar at the same time on the calendar interface, but perhaps it is because the almanac content does not match the taboo content that one actually violates, and it is confusing. The fact made the man in the vest panic. Under the extreme tension, he could not calm down and think about this.
The punishment is unpredictable and the power is unpredictable. With illusory rules and death close at hand, in this environment, few people can stay rational at all times.
Ning Zhe held his breath and stared at the man's hand reaching for the almanac: "If the almanac that has been turned to today is turned again, will it show the good or bad tomorrow?"
He did not go out to remind him at all. What the other party meant, Ning Zhe was only curious about one thing now: would the snake god allow it to check tomorrow's good or bad luck today?
This question was answered quickly.
The man in the vest picked up a page of the almanac with his stubby fingers, opened it, and hung the page on the nail that contained today's good and bad luck. But before the page was hung up, almost less than a second after he opened the almanac, a dull sound sounded in the ancestral hall.
That was the sound of human flesh colliding with the loess ground. He failed to successfully turn over the almanac to tomorrow, and his whole body collapsed on the ground as if he had lost all strength, motionless.
"It seems the answer is not allowed." Ning Zhe said to himself.
Although the body has not been actually examined, an inexplicable premonition appeared in Ning Zhe's heart, as if someone had given him a hint.
He felt that this man was dead.
The cool evening breeze blew in from outside the door. The opened page of yellow paper has not fallen back to its original position, rustling like a dead leaf in the wind, and like a Butterflies with dark yellow wings fluttered in this quiet ancestral hall, and the words "good or bad tomorrow" were faintly visible under the wings of the butterflies.
Ning Zhe took a deep breath and turned away from looking at the almanac, but he was not ready to leave either.
The sudden death of the man in the vest was not due to luck, but because he violated some hidden taboo that was independent of the taboo of 'good or bad today'.
"Is it similar to the unspoken rules under the surface rules?" Ning Zhe thought in his mind as he quickly walked out from behind the curtain.
There was a cool draft blowing in the ancestral hall. Ning Zhe used his deft hands and feet to drag the body of the man in the vest away from the snake god statue and hid it under the altar table covered by the red tablecloth. A newly deceased person won't have any smell for a short period of time, so the body shouldn't be exposed if it's hidden here.
Ning Zhe arranged the tablecloth, quickly left the altar table, and hid behind the curtain against the wall again.
“Besides me and this man, there should be other living people in this village. They may also come to the ancestral hall and read the almanac.”
Ning Zhe was not frightened by the strange death that happened in front of him. He still knew clearly what he should do now - by observing whether other people who came here from the outside were unlucky or not, he might be able to judge whether today's auspicious trip was going to happen. 'The specific meaning of taboo.
The content of the almanac is the key to survival in this isolated mountain village.
(End of this chapter)